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Let me set the scene – an intimate 4o guest affair in The Bahamas, with sparkly turquoise waters and sand between the toes. It’s exactly how these sweeties said “I do,” and even better? The bride happens to be our own beloved LBBer, Mum’s Flowers. Not only did she hand-pick her bouquet from the side of the road (ah-mazing!) but she brought on Jeremiah And Rachel to photograph the day. Oh, and you can escape to paradise via the gorgeous gallery right here!

From the Bride… I’ve been traveling to the out islands of the Bahamas every year with my family since I was 6 months old. Over the years Eleuthera has become my favorite island with its friendly local people, colorful buildings, and old world Caribbean charm. I knew from a young age that I wanted to celebrate my marriage here, on “Bahamian time” barefoot on the beach with my closest family and friends.

Dan and I met when I was in college at PLNU and he was in Navy Seal training at Coronado. We are both from a small mountain town in Montana and met through mutual friends in San Diego. Four years later, after his first deployment to Iraq and my first year owning a busy flower shop back in our hometown of Whitefish, MT we started dating. We decided to get married a year later in a simple courthouse ceremony before his second deployment to Afghanistan, making plans for a destination wedding when he got back.

I’m at that age where all of my friends are getting married and we’ve spent so much time and money traveling all over the country to see the couple for 3 minutes at the reception and so it was important to me that we were able to spend quality time with everyone who made the trip out. I also wanted to make sure our wedding wasn’t stressful for either of us …. I see so many brides in tears the week before their wedding and I hate the stress that weddings creates. Instead we created a stress-free vacation, everyone pitching in to help if needed but really simplifying the process and making it more about time spent together rather than time spent decorating. I picked the flowers for my bouquet from along side the road by the house the morning of the wedding (since hurricane Sandy hit the island 2 short weeks before our big day, it was slim pickings!) and my dad made my favorite poppyseed cake (don’t let him fool you, he doesn’t do this for a living, he’s just an artist :) We flew out some close photographer friends of mine and walked down the beach to dinner at the beach house. My dress is from an incredible new designer, Sareh Nouri, who I met at a bridal salon in New Jersey and fell IN LOVE with her designs and her lovely personality, accompanied by a BHLDN headpiece, my grandmother’s vintage diamond Hamilton watch from 1920, and Kate Spade sandals. We printed customized welcome totes for all our guests filled with maps, underwater cameras, sunscreen, and lots of other local goodies to make their vacation more enjoyable.

After producing over a hundred weddings myself, I wanted to make sure we kept our wedding intimate with the focus on our marriage and our guests. I planned a week long getaway for 40 of our closest family and friends, renting large houses on the beach where everyone could stay together. We spend the week leading up to the wedding basking in the turquoise clear water, kayak surfing the gentle waves, snorkeling and free diving for lobster and local fish, dueling it out on the beach volleyball court we set up in front of the house, and sharing large home-cooked meals together under the bright starry skies. By the time our wedding rolled around everyone was relaxed, tan, happy and had made new friends wishing we could stay 2 more weeks.

The wedding was absolute perfection, more than anything I could have ever dreamed … from the laid back beach venue, to the hand made cake my mom and dad baked, designed, and decorated together, our simple personal vows, the high tide coming up to soak our feet, the yummy coconut fresh grouper and conch fritters, and the local rake and scrape band to dance the night away. We’re already planning a yearly reunion with all of our guests.